Melissa Moody, Emeritus Director of Education and Development at the School for Self-Healing for many years, is a Self-Healing Practitioner and Instructor and Natural Vision Improvement Instructor, having studied with Meir Schneider, PhD, LMT, since 1998. She is a certified Instructor of the Meir Schneider Self-Healing Method and plans to offer Level One classes in Texas.

Melissa is also an Advanced CranioSacral and SomatoEmotional Release therapist, trained through the Upledger Institute; integrates Self-Healing and CranioSacral therapy and uses Syntonics Light therapy when needed (www.syntonicphototherapy.com). She is a founding Board of Director charter member of Ophoenix, www.ophoenix.org. In 2009, Melissa developed and implemented Self-Healing vision care classes “Take Care of Your Eyes” for Stanford University through Stanford’s Health Improvement Program, which are still ongoing.

Melissa is a featured subject in the documentary HAPPY www.thehappymovie.com, and in the BIO TV Channel’s Twisted Fate Series- hers is “Nothing’s Perfect.”

Melissa is available to give lectures and workshops nationwide. She offers private therapy sessions in Central Texas, and sometimes at the School for Self-Healing in San Francisco (when she is in the Bay Area). She is writing a book about her remarkable healing journey and starting a web site www.transcendingtrauma.com. You can reach Melissa by email mistymoody@me.com or by phone 650-218-9887.

Tragedy Transformed to Health, Purpose and a New Career

By Melissa Moody, CMT

In 1992, I was completely run over by an SUV in Texas and nearly killed. Massive injuries included a crushed face, brain injury, broken ribs, punctured lung, double vision and many musculoskeletal problems. My struggles were compounded by a rear end collision four years later, where I suffered a ruptured disc and a herniated disc in my neck.

In 1997, after years of physical therapy and more than 26 reconstructive surgeries, I still suffered constant chronic pain, limited movement and double vision. It was then I read Self-Healing, My Life and Vision by Meir Schneider, PhD, LMT, and hope stirred within me.

Meeting Meir Schneider

Meir gives Melissa a massage

Meir is a healthcare pioneer and visionary who overcame his own blindness and has facilitated the successful recovery of innumerable others. I resolved to get to San Francisco to see if he could help me.

Initially I went because I had lost what little binocular vision strabismus surgery had given me (a type of “tunnel vision” where I could see one image looking straight ahead of me, but even with the surgery, everything was double in my periphery and if I glanced in any direction other than directly in front); ophthalmic specialists were puzzled, and offered no solution. Constant double vision is disorienting, like living in a moving kaleidoscope.

In the fall of 1997, I came to San Francisco for two weeks of therapy. In two weeks of therapy with Meir, I regained the recently lost fusion, non-invasively, but even more surprising to me, I suffered less pain in my body and could move more freely. I went home armed with hope and my home program.

Using light wands

Training

After a couple of more visits, Meir suggested I take his Self-Healing Segment A class to better understand how to continue to work on myself. I thought I was too disabled to undertake such an endeavor, but he encouraged me, and thought it would really help.

Completing the class transformed my life. Immersing myself for ten days allowed me to internalize the principles, as well as experience dramatic change and improvement. Thrilled with the improvements I made, and intrigued with the effectiveness of Self-Healing, I approached Texas Rehabilitation Commission to underwrite further classes. But after a vocational evaluation TRC declined, deeming me too disabled. Undeterred, I found other support and resources through family and friends.

Meir and Melissa in a Self-Healing session

In 1999 I underwent an orbital (eye socket) reconstruction surgery in Seattle and suffered post-operative complications where I nearly went blind in my right eye. After a month in Seattle, I moved to San Francisco to work intensively with Meir and cornea specialists at UCSF medical center.

After about six month the specialists had eliminated the corneal infection and done all they could. I continued working with Meir on my vision, and my recovery for the rest of my body. In gratitude, I started volunteering at the School, and in 2001 I was able to start working part-time at the School, the first time in nearly ten years!

Melissa juggling to balance her eyes

A New Career-Practitioner and Educator

As I grew stronger, I worked more full time. I even improved from the residual effects of my brain injury. In 2003, I became the Education and Development Director at the School for Self-Healing. In 2004, I passed the vision test for my California driver’s test unrestricted! I am a Self-Healing practitioner and a natural vision improvement educator. I love being able to help others now.

Except for minor disfigurement in my face, no one would have a clue of what I have been through. And I engage in favorite activities like gardening and cooking, impossible a few years ago. Whereas in 1999 I could not even plan a dinner party, and I was in so much chronic pain I could not hold a garden hose for more than 5 minutes at a time, today I can garden and even dance.

Transformation

I am a “walking miracle,” trauma transcended and transformed. It has taken patience, motivation and work, but I never dreamed the quality of my life could be what it is today.